The members of Carbon Leaf have always managed to attract a large following -- from their early days as college students to their national appearance at the 2002 American Music Awards. Their 2004 breakthrough album, "Indian Summer", offered two success stories with "Life Less Ordinary" and "What About Everything". The band is on tour in support of its sixth studio album, "Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat", released September 12th. Carbon Leaf recently stopped by VOA to talk with Larry London.
Carbon Leaf's Barry Privett tells why the group's second album for Vanguard Records is so personal.
"The new album's called 'Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat,' and it's pretty self-explanatory,” he tells us. “It's the -- what I kind of half-jokingly call ‘the four seasons of the human condition,’ running you through the wash cycle of love, loss, hope, and then repeating that cycle and then, so it's kind of a bittersweet album of those intangibles that you can't hold onto, that the emotions that kind of drive our lives and, uh, it's a love, loss, hope, repeat."
Carbon Leaf is known for its busy schedule, performing more than 300 concerts a year. Barry explains why the band works so hard.
"I always liken it to swimming in a swim meet where you just keep your head down in the pool and you just keep swimming until, you know, your coach pulls your head out of the water and says, 'OK, you can stop.' We just hit the road and we play and we go city to city and then meet people and do our thing and assuming the rest will take care of itself."
He reflected on his career. "We're lucky that whenever I stop and think, you know, this is what we've chosen to do and we're doing it and we don't have to take part-time jobs to drive through the night every night like we used to do. I mean, that's the freedom that you have from that is definitely worth it."
Where does Carbon Leaf hope to be in the near future?
“We'd love to be touring the world, making music, and having people come and listen to it and I'd be happy.”
For now, Carbon Leaf will settle for people buying its new album, "Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat."
All footage, except interviews (during which Carbon Leaf members are standing), is courtesy of Vanguard Records.